Originally Posted by
Xandrios
Appreciate your feedback as you are obviously much more familiar with this topic than most of us here.
One thing I was wondering is if the size may have played a role here. The news reports that Tripsta started building a debt 'to the airlines' from 2015 onwards. Perhaps, exactly because Tripsta was doing such huge volumes, airlines and/or GDS were more accepting of this behaviour than they would be towards a smaller TA..
From what I understand Tripsta is blaming Travelport for its demise. This, kind of, implies that a large part of the debt is with them - otherwise Travelport would not be able to cause such a sudden cash problem at Tripsta. So the Travelport GDS seems to be involved in some way or another...though both parties are very silent on their exact role.
Rumour has it they indeed owe Travelport a substantial amount. Now this agrreement would be for subscription of access to the Travelport platform and other aspects of the products offered by Travelport to their offices and employees. Such contracts in the past have included even the computers/printers/servers etc... Of course unless you see the contract no ones knows what was included but when an agreement of that size goes belly up then yes it could close down a company which owes hundreds of thousands both to Travelport and airlines,suppliers etc..
From the announcement in 2015:
Travelport and Tripsta announce new agreement
Travelport (NYSE:TVPT), a leading Travel Commerce Platform, has today announced it has signed a new long term agreement with
Tripsta, one of the biggest online travel agencies in Europe. Tripsta, based in Greece, operates the travelplanet24 brand and recently merged with airtickets.com to create the largest OTA in South East Europe and Greece’s largest e-commerce company. Tripsta has a presence in over 45 countries and carries over two million passengers annually.
The new agreement sees Tripsta connect to Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform via its Universal API. It will allow their travel agents to search, sell and book Travelport’s unrivalled content including branded fares and ancillaries from over 400 network and low cost carriers, over 650,000 hotels, rail, cruise and car rental companies. Tripsta and Travelport already have an existing relationship and today’s announcement significantly extends that.
Philipp Brinkmann, CEO of Tripsta commented: “We are pleased to have entered into this new long term agreement with Travelport. Travelport has impressed us with the investment they’ve made in new technology and the content they have on their platform. We are looking forward to working even more closely together to help grow our business.”
Leonidas Zotos, Travelport’s Managing Director of Travelport for Greece, Israel and Cyprus commented: “This is a fantastic win for Travelport and represents a significant new chapter in Travelport and Tripsta’s already strong relationship. Tripsta, Travelplanet24 and airtickets.com are big brands, not only in Greece, but across Europe and it’s great they have seen the value in our Travel Commerce Platform.”
http://www.travelport.com/company/me...-new-agreement